---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS."
description: "Currently, the age for wait staff to serve alcohol to a patron is 19 years old. This Act lowers the age of persons permitted to serve alcohol from 19 to 18 years of age for all establishments licensed for the on-premises sale and consumption of alcoholic liquor except taverns and taprooms."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 365"
citation: "Delaware HB 365 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ernesto B Lopez", "Peter C. Schwartzkopf"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-04-12"
last_action: "2018-07-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e203893f-6897-46a6-9f74-f2e7be45e443"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26479"
source_hash: "6cbcfeec4fd77fb87c83fb300f52510fa9b30026878e25c3173191afc9a1a9bf"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 365 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 4 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

Currently, the age for wait staff to serve alcohol to a patron is 19 years old. This Act lowers the age of persons permitted to serve alcohol from 19 to 18 years of age for all establishments licensed for the on-premises sale and consumption of alcoholic liquor except taverns and taprooms.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26479&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB365)

## Votes

- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **37–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Ernesto B Lopez — primary (person)
- Peter C. Schwartzkopf — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Gregory F. Lavelle — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-04-12** Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-05-02** Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce) in House with 11 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-05-10** Passed By House. Votes: 37 YES 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-05-10** Assigned to Banking, Business & Insurance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-06-06** Reported Out of Committee (Banking, Business & Insurance) in Senate with 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-06-19** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-07-17** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e203893f-6897-46a6-9f74-f2e7be45e443`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).